Thursday, 23 May 2013

'We are Norwich' statement on Woolwich murder

We are Norwich strongly condemns the appalling murder of a man today in Woolwich.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

We also strongly condemn any racist or fascist group who try to hijack this atrocity with bigotry and violence in an attempt to stoke racial tensions for their own political gain. At the time of writing this statement too few details exist to make well founded judgements and We are Norwich asks everyone to remain calm.

We as a group will not let an entire community come under attack because of a minority of radicals.

We need to look at the facts: Islamic terrorist attacks account for fewer than 100 deaths in the UK, a figure which is clearly too high. But, in recent years, we've seen the IRA admit to the death of 1,800 “non-combatants” alone. Anders Breivik, a Christian, murdered nearly 70 mostly young people on and around the island of Utøya, Norway and we've seen reported many, many school shootings by mostly white, non-Muslim people in the United States.

At no point do we intend to protect any murder or act of terrorism, but it is clear that the real enemy is not Islam but extremism.